Muhammad's mind, though he might have learnt it from the Jews, and must have seen the principle exemplified among many of the Israelites of Arabia. Such a principle¹ is hostile to the genius of Islam. In Muhammadan lands even to the present time, wherever people endeavour to live in accordance with the laws of their "Prophet," each household is divided into two entirely different parts, the first consisting of the male members of the family, the second of the female. There is no common family life. The wife never eats with her husband, but either waits upon him at his meals, if the household is a poor one, or takes her food secluded in the haram, while her husband in his own part of the house is attended upon by his slaves, if he is rich enough to afford it. In the case of princes and rich men the haram is guarded by eunuchs. Each wife lives in a separate house and has an establishment of her own. In consequence of the expense attending this, polygamy is comparatively rare among Muslims in India and in some other countries; but divorce is of frequent occurrence. Concubinage is distinctly sanctioned by Islam, and prevails in purely Muhammadan lands to the

utmost extent possible. In Persia temporary¹ marriages, for a month, a week, or for even shorter periods, are sanctioned by the religious authorities and performed before them; and, though forbidden ² by the Sunnis, the same practice prevails very extensively at Mecca itself. It is quite impossible to depict the full horrors of which the Religion of Muhammad thus approves,—to tell of the divisions in families, the jealousy and hatred between half-brothers, between two legal wives of the same husband,—the slanders, the scandals to which this unnatural system gives rise. Nor does such a very "liberal" moral³ code prevent